Short Biographical Note on Mr. N. M. Rashed (copy 2)

Rashed, N. M. Short Biographical Note on Mr. N. M. Rashed (copy 2). 1 p. 1 sheet. 8.5 x 11". Typewritten. Biographical note on N. M. Rashed listing positions and activities up to 1959. This copy marked "For Baji" (NMR's eldest daughter Nasrin Rashed) at top left by donor Yasmin Hassan. English. Box 2. Folder 5: English translations of NMR poetry and letters to editors. 003. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Pasha M. Khan. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full item here.

Several similar short biographies in English and Urdu are present in the NMR Archive. As our researcher Zahra Sabri notes, this version of the English biography is different from the version that Rashed sent to Carlo Coppola when the latter was preparing his interview with Rashed for his issue of the journal Mahfil. Apparently this version was written prior to the 1969 publication of Lā = Insān, as it is not mentioned.

1910 - Born in Akalgarh (now Alipur Chattha) in Gujranwala District of what is now Pakistan.
1926 - Matriculated from Government High School.
1928 - Passed Intermediate Exams from Government College, Lyallpur (now Faisalabad).
1930 - Bachelor's degree with Honours in Persian from Government College Lahore.
1932 - Master's degree in Economics from Government College Lahore. Began writing free verse in Urdu (the form with whose success he is associated).
1932-34 - Honorary editor of educational monthly Nakhlistān, Multan.
1935 - Editor of literary and educational magazine Shāhkār, Lahore. Became Assistant in Commissioner’s Office, Multan late in year.
1939 - Programme Assistant at All-India Radio. Later became Director of Programmes in Delhi.
1940 - Joined Halqa-i Arbāb-i Zauq, Delhi.
1942 - Published Māwarā.
1943-1947 - Captain, Indian Army Public Relations. Stationed in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Ceylon.
1947 May - Assistant Station Director, Lucknow.
1947 Aug. - Assistant Station Director, Peshawar and Lahore.
1949-1952 - Public Relations Officer, Station Director, Radio Pakistan.
1952 Oct. - Incharge of South East Asia Section of Radio and Visual Services Division in Office of Public Information, United Nations.
1956 - Director UN Information Centre, Djakarta. Published Īrān meñ ajnabī.
1958 - Deputy Director UN Information Centre, Karachi.
1959 - Director UN Information Centre, Karachi.

Among his influences he lists: Aldous Huxley, Oscar Wilde, D. H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, Leo Tolstoy, James Joyce, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Stéphane Mallarmé, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Muhammad Deen Taseer (father of assassinated former governor of Pakistani Punjab Salman Taseer), Akhtar Sherani, and Chiragh Hassan Hasrat.

This version is marked "for Baji" in black pen in Yasmin Hassan's handwriting at the top left. A copy of it was made and sent to Yasmin Hassan’s eldest sister, Nasrin Rashed, in Islamabad.¹

Article by Pasha M. Khan
June 15, 2015